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Nicholas Ryan

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Nicholas Ryan is a Research Programme Director for the IGC energy research programme.

Nicholas Ryan studies energy markets and environmental regulation in developing countries. Energy use enables high standards of living but rapid, energy-intensive growth has caused many environmental problems in turn. Nick’s research measures how energy use and pollution emissions respond to regulation and market incentives. His work includes empirical studies of the effect of power grid capacity on electricity prices, how firms make decisions about energy-efficiency and how environmental regulation can be designed to best abate pollution at low social cost.

Nick is joining Yale University as a Cowles Foundation Fellow for 2014-15 and an Assistant Professor of Economics from 2015 onwards. He has been a Prize Fellow in Economics at Harvard University from 2012-2014. He received a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012 and a BA in Economics summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. He previously worked as a Research Associate in the Capital Markets group at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, DC.

Content by Nicholas Ryan

Project

Myanmar is in energy poverty. Venture outside Yangon or Mandalay at night and one will be mostly faced with darkness. The Government of Myanmar rightly sees electrification as a national priority for growth. The National Electrification Plan (NEP) is an ambitious plan by the government to provide access to electricity for all by 2030, up from 34% today. It aims to achieve...

13 Sep 2017 | Nicholas Ryan, Michael Greenstone, Robin Burgess

Blog post

An Indian state programme is aiming to curb air pollution by facilitating transparency in industry emissions, using ratings and targets that the public can view online.
Measuring industry emissions
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) launched a new Star Rating Programme for air pollution on June 5, 2017–World Environment Day. The programme uses smoke-stack...

Project

Industry has not only fuelled rapid growth and increased living standards in China and India but also contributed to air and water pollution. Pollution concentrations in these and other developing countries exceed the highest levels recorded in the developed world. Industrial regulations in India have a history of heavy-handedness, characterised by onerous licensing and...

Project

India is choking on growth. Of the 20 cities in the world with the worst fine particulate air pollution, 13 are in India, meaning the average Indian loses about three years of his or her life due to the harm of this pollution There is also growing evidence that high levels of pollution lower labour productivity and, therefore, potentially economic growth.
If good...

Publication - Project Report

Blog post

Access to electricity is critical to encouraging growth and reducing poverty. Around the world, 1.3 billion people have no access to electricity, including 300 million Indian citizens, most of whom live in rural areas. Micro-grid products could provide an innovative solution, bridging the gaps in access to electricity with potentially large economic and welfare gains...

Project

Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) is a modern cooking fuel, which is convenient, reliable, and does not, like many traditional fuels, pollute one’s kitchen and lungs. For these benefits, 15 million Indians are adopting LPG every year. The Government of India heavily subsidises LPG in order to induce households to switch from dirtier fuels like kerosene and aims to...

4 Sep 2015 | Anant Sudarshan, Nicholas Ryan, Prabhat Barnwal

Project

Growth in developing countries has improved living standards for millions, but has led to high pollution concentrations and serious public health damages. Market based environmental regulation can reduce the costs of pollution reduction and thus transform the trade-off between environmental quality and growth.
This study will measure the effects of a pilot emissions...

Project

The power sector is widely viewed as one of the biggest constraints on India’s economic growth, the main problem being that almost half of power drawn from the grid is not paid for and in unmetered, unbilled or pilfered. In the state of Bihar, 45% of power consumed falls in this category. The Government of Bihar is trying to address this problem and expand access to...

Project

Industrial regulation in India has a history of heavyhandedness, with industrial licensing and labour regulations impeding economic growth
Study assesses how technology and market mechanisms can support environmental regulation policies that can minimise the social costs of energy consumption
The study found that reforms for auditor independence can...

Project

High levels of industrial pollution are a harmful byproduct of growth. The Indian state of Gujarat is an industrial powerhouse with about 5 percent of the Indian population, but 9 percent of India's registered manufacturing employment and 19 percent of output (Authors' calculation, Annual Survey of Industries, 2004-05). This growth has been accompanied by a degradation of...